SIX HUNDRED years of peace and democracy in Switzerland
have given the world more than the cuckoo clock; they also do
yodelling and organic cheese.
The Prince of Wales, on the last day of a three-nation visit to
central Europe, stepped yesterday into a scene straight from
Heidi, that romantic tale of an apple-cheeked Swiss milkmaid that
was once required reading for all middle-class English girls to fill
the gap between Enid Blyton and their first pony.
The Prince, who runs an organic farm on his Gloucestershire
estate, went to the village of Faltschen, in the Kander valley above
the Swiss capital, Berne, to see organic cheese being made by the
Rubin family, who have been at it since 1920.
A committed Europhobe when it comes to Brussels anti-cheese
directives, the Prince once memorably defended unpasteurised
French cheeses threatened by an EU attempt to outlaw them as
being dangerously tasty.
With President Ogi, a native of the region, as his guide, the Prince
was welcomed to the village by the entire Rubin family yodelling.
Farmer Klaus Rubin, his son Marcel, 20, and daughter Vreni, 17,
sang for the Prince in their barn as he tasted samples of their
organic cheese, egged on by an enthusiastic President Ogi.
Did he like goat’s cheese, the President asked. “I like it but the
smell always reminds me of my sporran,” the Prince replied,
leaving the puzzle hanging in the clear mountain air: never mind
what he wears under his Scottish dress, what does he keep in the
accessory? The Prince wears the kilt and attendant sporran
regularly when at Balmoral. But whereas the secret of the Queen’s
handbag is now generally known to be her spectacles, the contents
of the Prince’s sporran remain a mystery. In the absence of firm
information, there will be widespread speculation that he uses it to
carry organic goat’s cheese.
Later the Prince drove to the Alpine resort of Kandersteg, where
he looked in at a cheese shop — possibly looking for something to
tuck into his sporran — and was again serenaded by a local choir
in the village’s 16th-century church.
As he was leaving Switzerland for home, his Duchy Originals
organic home-made coarse-cut clementine marmalade was picking
up a top prize at the Soil Association’s organic food awards in
London.
It is said to smell sweeter than the inside of a sporran.
~*~
Duchess of York meets Dalai Lama(Yahoo: Ananova)
The Duchess of York has met the Dalai Lama to discuss ways in which her charity can
support the Tibetan schools in India.
The Duchess's four-day visit to the Tibetan spiritual leader's exile capital included trips to
the original Tibetan Children's Village school, or TCV, founded as an orphanage for
refugee children in 1960, and the Soga Transit School, which provides education to
recent arrivals from Tibet.
"I'm a mother with two children, so I'm going to give some proceeds to TCV," the
Duchess said after an hour-long meeting with the Dalai Lama.
She said she was gathering facts to decide whether her charity, Children in Crisis would also contribute.
About 3,000 Tibetans flee their homeland each year, many of them children who come to India to study at the
extensive school system established by the exile community.
The Dalai Lama's government-in-exile claims that many Tibetans are denied the opportunity to gain an education
under the Chinese regime.
The Duchess is on her first visit to Dharmsala, at the invitation of the Jetsun Pema, the Dalai Lama's sister. The
two women met at a fund-raising concert in Italy earlier this year.
Children in Crisis, founded in 1991, has provided support to children in Romania, Afghanistan and Kosovo.